Setting up Oracle Portal 10g to use Oracle Reports PART 1

I know many of you have been through this. I also know quite a few that haven't. Since I have had to integrate Reports with Portal in many different ways, I figured I would show one way I implemented this. I've had top-level consultants and co-workers tell me certain configurations don't work. Fortunately, in my experiences I have gotten the integration between Reports and Portal to work every single time. This will not go into detail about the Reports Server configurations...let's stick to the Portal side of things.

This procedure will set up a report server in Oracle Portal that will be used to call your Oracle Reports.

Log into Oracle Portal.


Click the "Administer" tab.


Click "Oracle Reports Security Settings".




Click "Create Reports Server Access".

Enter a name and display name for the Reports Server and select a provider.


Enter the Reports Server name and the web gateway URL for PDF reports. The Reports Server name can be looked up in Oracle Enterprise Manager. The current production gateway may look like "https://my.site.com/reports/rwservlet". The two steps after this screen are unnecessary, so you may click the "Finish" button on this screen when done.

When you've created an Oracle Report and are ready to access it in Portal, you will need to upload it to the server. The current path on the server where the reports can be placed (for example) may look like: /u01/app/oracle/product/10.1.2/OAS/as_biportal/reports/samples/demo.

Setting up the Report for use in Portal- You should first have your Oracle report created and know the name of all the parameters that will be passed into the report. Click "Create Reports Definition File Access".

Enter the name and display name for the report and select the provider. Typical names can look like "RPT_ORDER_STATUS" and display names like "Report - Order Status", etc.

Select the report server to use and the file name of the report (the report server was created in the prior step above). The file name is the actual name of the Oracle Reports .rdf file for the report.

Select the destination type and format. For PDF reports, the type should be "Cache" and the format should be "PDF".

Enter the parameters for the report. The "Name" field should match exactly the parameter names you defined within the Oracle Report. The two steps after this screen aren't always necessary, so you may click the "Finish" button on this screen when done.

The report definition is now created and you will be returned to the below screen. Click the "Access" tab.

Select the "Publish as Portlet" checkbox and click the "Apply" button. The screen will refresh.
Then click the close button.

You will be returned to the below screen. Click the "Customize" link to expose the report parameters to Portal.

A popup window will be displayed listing the custom parameters you defined for the report, as well as several system parameters. For each custom parameter you defined, check the box labeled "Visible to user". This will expose the parameter to Portal screens that the report is placed on so that data can be passed from the screen and into the report.

In the "Additional User Parameters" field you can enter the following code:
&userid=[username]/[password]@[host string]
Note that we don't have the 'Visible to user' option checked here. This is because this parameter is being passed to the Report as a security and data filtering action. Depending on who is logged into Portal, the user's name and password will be passed to the Report and the appropriate data will be retrieved to display on the Report. We don't want this parameter to be visible to anyone, the username and password are passed transparently.

You can then click the "Save Parameters" button when done and then close the popup window manually. The report should now be ready for use in portal screens. You can also click the "Run Report" button after you've saved the parameters for the report. Depending on your report and the parameters that it requires, the report may not display correctly, but it should give you an idea if the report is at least being accessed and called correctly from Portal.

Next time we will continue by showing how to create a Portal page for your Oracle Report.